EU policy chiefs to touch on Balkans

EU policy chiefs to touch on Balkans

Serbian president Boris Tadić headed out to Brussels for tomorrow’s meeting with the European Troika led by the Council of Ministers’ Chairman Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The EU-Serbia political dialogue will focus on the situation in Kosovo and the future of EU-Serbia relations.

The official position of the European Union regarding Kosovo is that Belgrade and Priština must make concessions in order to reach a compromise and make the adoption of the UN resolution on Kosovo possible.

The UN resolution is necessary to set legal grounds for the EU’s projected international presence in Kosovo after  the settlement of the province’s status.

The prevalent belief in EU diplomatic circles is that the genuine negotiations on Kosovo, which proved unsuccessful during the Vienna talks, will continue in the UN Security council, where the veto-wielding world powers can continue to push for a fair deal on the new resolution.

When it comes to the EU-Serbia relations, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht said last week he opposed any resumption of SAA talks with Serbia unless Belgrade previously upgraded and fulfilled its obligations to the Hague Tribunal.

However, EU policy chiefs at their last meeting held on February 12 said that the EU planned to recommence the talks “should Belgrade demonstrate its unequivocal determination and take tangible and effective measures to meet the Hague’s requests”.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn voiced the same stance last Wednesday, assuring that the SAA talks might be resumed as soon as the new Serbian Government “made concrete steps towards the full co-operation with the Tribunal”.

Sources from the European Commission claim that the EU chief might again review its relations with Serbia and hear the opinion of the Belgian FM.

Nevertheless, as the European Commission officials underscored, the EU Council of Ministers “agreed on and adopted the legal grounds on the further co-operation with Serbia” at their last meeting, which means that the SAA talks could pick up, but their successful completion will depend on Serbia’s full co-operation with the Hague.